Not a Little Miracle
St. Mark 7:31-37
August 30, 2020 anno Domini – Redeemer
Martin Luther was confident in the Word of God. Again and again he would say something like this, “If I could just get the Pope alone in a room and speak the clear Word of God to him the whole church would be changed.” Wasn’t Luther a fool? How many times have you said of a family member, “She won’t change. She’ll never come back to church. It’s no use?” You’ve even said it of yourself as you’ve wrestled with sin or depression or despair. I can’t stop it. There’s no hope. Nothing will change.
Don’t say that to Jesus. He speaks to a deaf person. If there was ever a waste of words it would telling a deaf person to hear. Isn’t Jesus a fool? He is, but foolishness is a mark of God’s kingdom. The world says “that will never work” and God by His Word works it. Jesus does all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.
To our ears this miracle is one of the littler miracles. One man gets back his hearing and speech. That’s not much compared to feeding 5000 or healing 10 lepers or sending home 180 gallons of extra wine after the wedding reception. But be careful what you think. You would think it foolish for Jesus to speak to deaf man and it isn’t. In the same way this is no small miracle.
700 years before this miracle Isaiah the prophet foretold that the Messiah would make the deaf to hear. You will find many miracles in the Old Testament, but not one where a deaf man hears. This particular miracle testified that Jesus is the Christ. When John the Baptist questioned Jesus’ claims, Jesus said “Go and tell John what you hear and see; the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear.” (Matt. 11:5)
This miracle, like so many miracles, is a foretaste the resurrection. God gave you ears to hear and tongues to speak and eyes to see and hands to work. But some are born deaf. Some have speech impediments. Some are born whose hands will never work. As death draws near ears lose their ability to hear. Retinas detach from eyes. Hands grow crippled with arthritis. Sin broke and killed creation so ears go deaf, tongues go mute, and eventually lungs stop breathing.
Whenever we encounter a miracle we should not say, “Oh, I wish that would happen to me.” We should confess, “That is happening to me.” In the resurrection I’m going to be able to hear my wife. My hearing will be perfectly restored. Unfortunately for her it won’t matter because there is no marriage in heaven. Your eyes will see clearly. Your back won’t ache. Your lungs will breathe deeply of life. All of that is yours now, by faith, in the forgiveness of sins that Christ won on the cross. Soon you will have it by sight.
That’s another lesson from this miracle. Every miracle is tied to the cross and the resurrection. The resurrection is seen in this man’s ears hearing and tongue speaking. The cross is seen in how Jesus healed this man.
Jesus does something unique in this miracle, not just in sticking his finger in the man’s ears or spitting and touching his tongue. Jesus obviously isn’t too worried about Covid-19. Looking up to heaven he sighed. In all but one other place in the New Testament this word is translated “groan” and it is the groaning that comes with bearing a great burden. Creation groans because we humans have sinned but all of creation carries the suffering. We groan because our bodies are wearing out like tents and we long for the permanent bodies of the resurrection. Rulers groan when their subjects disobey and rebel.
When Jesus healed this deaf man He groaned with the burden of the man’s suffering. The weight of the healing afflicted Him. Jesus is not some Genie full of endless magic wishes who dispenses His goodies with ease. When He spent a long day healing people He had to rest. Every healing took something out of Him and laid something on Him because that is what His mission was. He took all that is ours because of sin – all that racks our bodies and souls and it was pressed down upon Him. Then He emptied Himself, pouring out His life, breathing His last, shedding His blood. You cannot separate the miracles from the cross or the cross from the miracles. Jesus did not come you could hear your wife with perfect ears. He came to bear the burden of your sin and free your heart so you could love your wife to death, raise your children in the faith, and join together with Him in the resurrection.
Lastly we learn what happens when Jesus opens ears and loosens tongues. Ears hear and tongues speak. Saint Mark says, “His ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.” That word plainly is the word “orthos” – as in orthodontics – when you pay $5000 to set your teeth right. Or orthopedics – where a doctor gets your feet set right. Orthos means right. His tongue spoke rightly because Jesus had set it right.
This is what forgiveness does – it sets us right with God. By the death of Jesus Christ your sins are forgiven. He took all that was wrong with you – your sins and your infirmities – every sickness, pain, and trouble to the cross. Forgiven by Christ, God the Father declares us right.
Christ’s righteousness affects us. It sets our ears right to hear what is true. It sets our tongues right to speak what is true. We who are declared righteous in Christ now strive to live right lives. There’s a big church word for this. We are “orthodox” – that means our lives are lives of right praise of God.
Because humans alone sinned we are the most messed up of all God’s creatures. In case you don’t know that turn on the nightly news. My Labrador is more orthodox than an unconverted sinner. My Labrador does what Labradors are supposed to do. She wags her tail when I come home, sleeps at my feet, loves to go swimming, and she used to retrieve things until she couldn’t stand. She does what God made her to do and unknowingly she gives God right praise.
To live as an orthodox human is simply to be human, as God created humans originally, to live in faith toward God and in love toward your neighbor. To be human is to be in church on the Lord’s day to receive His gifts, to be honest and diligent in your work, to be content with what the Lord has given you, to be faithful to your wife or husband before you’ve even met them by remaining chaste, by dressing humbly, by not putting yourself in tempting situations. To be human is not to play at marriage after your spouse dies with your special friend. To be human is to not bear false witness based on what you hear on Fox news, CNN, or Facebook. To be human is to check your tongue so that OMG and other profanities are not coming off the tongue made right by God. To be human is to fear losing the Lord more than losing your health or your life or your family.
Don’t try to speak a deaf person into hearing – you’re not Jesus, but learn from this little miracle. Jesus is the Christ. He too all that is wrong with you and makes it right. By His cross He has done all things well and now His resurrection is your resurrection. You are declared right so live rightly – as a real human, in the name of Jesus. Amen.